Sunday, March 09, 2014

So-called Smart Diplomacy

On February 23, five days before Russia invaded Ukraine, National Security Adviser Susan Rice appeared on Meet the Press
and shrugged off suggestions that Russia was preparing any kind of
military intervention: “It’s in nobody’s interest to see violence
returned and the situation escalate.” A return to a “Cold War construct”
isn’t necessary, Rice insisted, because such thinking “is long out of
date” and “doesn’t reflect the realities of the 21st century.” Even if
Vladimir Putin sees the world this way, Rice argued, it is “not in the
United States’ interests” to do so...

It was a remarkably transparent case of pretending the world is what we wish it to be, rather than seeing it as it is.

On February 28, Russian troops poured into Ukraine. As
they did, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov, his Russian counterpart. Kerry briefed reporters after their
talk, plainly unaware of the developments on the ground. Kerry said that
Russia wants to help Ukraine with its economic problems. Lavrov had
told him “that they are prepared to be engaged and be involved in
helping to deal with the economic transition that needs to take place at
this point.”

Hours later, television screens across the world displayed
images of Russian soldiers infiltrating Crimea and Russian artillery
rolling through Sevastopol. Obama administration officials told CNN’s
Barbara Starr that the incursion was not “an invasion” but an
“uncontested arrival” and that this distinction was “key” to
understanding the new developments.

But euphemism can’t alter reality.

Not everyone in the world is a Democrat and hangs slavishly on your every word and view, Barack.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Create a vacuum of power by cutting forces, setting up rigid ROE's and offering a public message that avoids exceptionalism in any form and you create a situation where big players feel it's okay to expand. While Obama likes to pretend this is a Global Economy and that American exceptionalism doesn't matter-it's a lie. Without the U.S. there to play enforcer publicly or via meaningful diplomatic action (a joke considering who's in power at State)nations like China, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Somalia, Egypt, Pakistan and India will take steps-ostensibly for their own security-to fill the void. Obama and his staff seem woefully ignorant of not just American history, but on the history of humankind. Somewhere Putin is laughing.